Emergency starting power for engines

ABSTRACT

An emergency power system is designed to provide additional battery power for starting engines operating on petroleum products, when the normal battery supply for this purpose has insufficient energy available. The system utilizes either primary reserve cells or dry charged secondary cells for the supplemental power and connects them in such a manner that they can be activated immediately when required.

United States Patent [1 1 Sarbacher EMERGENCY STARTING POWER FOR ENGINES[75] Inventor: Robert I. Sarbacher, Santa Monica,

Calif.

[73] Assignee: John C. Bogne, Santa Monica, Calif. {22] Filed: Sept. 14,1971 21 Appl. No.: 180,331

[ Dec. 11, 1973 3,174,048 3/1965 Snyder 290/50 1,924,959 8/1933Patterson 290/50 3,340,402 9/1967 Curtis 290/50 2,730,581 1/1956Bruno.... 290/38 2,761,978 9/1956 Plumi 290/38 Primary ExaminerG. R.Simmons Attorney-Fred L. witherspoon et al.

[57] ABSTRACT An emergency power system is designed to provideadditional battery power for starting engines operating on petroleumproducts, when the normal battery supply for this purpose hasinsufficient energy available. The system utilizes either primaryreserve cells or dry charged secondary cells for the supplemental powerand connects them in such a manner that they can be activatedimmediately when required.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 1 EMERGENCY STARTING POWER FOR ENGINESBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are numerous occasions when the normalbattery power supply in an automobile, boat, airplane and the like isunable to provide the power necessary to start the engine. Under manysuch circumstances the extra energy necessary to start the engine may beonly a fraction of that which is available in the normal battery powersupply. Thus, supplimentary power requirements may be less than onethird the power available from the normal supply. Such occasions arisein very cold weather, for example. This is usually due to two factors.First, all electrochemical batteries lose power when operated in verycold weather. Second, the viscosity of the lubricants in the engine issuch that more energy than normal is required to start the engine incold weather. It is the purpose of this invention to provide theadditional energy necessary on such and other occasions by actuating thesupplemental reserve battery or batteries and providing the necessarycircuitry to connect them into the existing electrical system in such amanner as to employ them most efficiently and effectively. Systems inwhich a reserve battery is connected into the electrical system in placeof the regular battery to start an automobile engine, as well as asystem which provides connection for a booster battery, are known in theart. This invention provides for the parallel connection of asupplementary battery and in addition for the series connection of anadditional supplementary battery if required. These supplementarybatteries are of the type well known in the art, which have better lowtemperature characteristics than the popular lead-acid batteries mostregularly used as a battery power supply for applications of the kinddiscussed here.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION ever, once the electrolyte is released from itsreserve container such as by mechanical rupture, explosive squib ruptureor by any other means as are well known in the art, the battery isactivated, and thereafter has a limited standby life.

In accordance with the present invention, reserve batteries may beconnected in parallel with the normal connected in parallel with thenormal electrical power supply of the engine without in any wayinterfering with its ordinary function, and without causing anyelectrical drain.

In addition to the parallel connection described above, an additionalsupplementary reserve battery may be connected in series with the normalelectrical power supply for theengine starting. When activated, a switchis simultaneously opened connecting the reserve battery in series withthe normal battery adding extra power to the system to start the engine.

Since the object of this invention is to supply supplementary power tothe standard electrical power supply of the engines starting equipment,and not to replace it, the operation of this invention is dependent uponthe power available in the system and is not applicable to engineshaving a completely exhausted power supply. Thus the energy to activatea squib, being very small indeed, is available, if this form ofactivation is used.

In order to avoid electrical power losses in the wires connecting thesupplementary battery or batteries to the starter motor, it is desirableto mount the reserve cells on a bracket attached directly on the enginesstarter motor. This is made possible due to the small size of thesupplementary reserve cells.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of thefollowing detailed description of the invention, when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagramillustrating a parallel connection of the supplementary reserve battery.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a series connection of asupplementary reserve battery.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating both a series and parallelconnection of the supplementary reserve batteries.

FIG. 4 shows apparatus for detachably mounting the reserve battery tothe starter motor housing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A storage battery, reserve batteryor batteries and motor are shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. These areonly schematically represented, because various structures'therefor arewell known in the art and the details thereof are not material to thepresent invention. The storage battery 20, FIG. 1, is the commonlead-acid electrochemical battery such as used in automobiles. Thereserve battery 21 may be a reserve primary electrochemical battery withan electrolyte compartment 22 and an electrode compartment 23. Thisbattery contains a piston rod 24 and piston 25. When the rod 24 isdepressed, the piston 25 forces the electrolyte contained in thecompartment 22 into the electrode compartment 23 by breaking the thindiaphragm 26 and thus energizing the battery. One of the batteryterminals 27, the positive terminal is connected to the ground, thenegative terminal to the starter switch 29 as indicated in FIG. 1. Thenegative tenninal 30 of the storage battery 20 is also connected at thesame point on the starter switch 29 and the positive terminal 31 of thisbattery is connected to the ground. The arrow 32 indicates a main powerlead to auxiliary equipment not concerned with this invention. Theconnections described above effectively place the reserve battery 21 inparallel with the storage battery 20. When an emergency arises whereinthe battery 20 does not have sufficient power to start the engine byenergizing the motor 28, the piston rod 24 is depressed, activating thereserve battery 21 whose power is then available to supplement the poweravailable in the storage battery 20. The depression of the piston rodmay be effected through a mechanical linkage 33, or through the use ofan explosive squib or any other means as is well known in the art. Bythe addition of this extra power, when the starter switch 29 is closedagain, there is sufficient energy available to the motor 28 to start theengine. When the reserve battery 21 is installed in the circuit, andbefore it is activated, its internal impedance is so high that it causesno drain on the storage battery 20 and can therefore remain in parallelwith this battery 20 indefinitely. Once it is activated, however, itwill retain its energy a limited time so that it should be removed atthe first convenience, and replaced with a new unactivated battery.

It is for this reason that arrangements should be made to provide a plugin" receptacle for this battery whereby it may be readily removed andreplaced when the occasion arises. Because the reserve battery 21 isphysically much smaller than the storage battery 20, a bracket to holdit can be located directly on the motor housing 28, as shown in FIG. 4.In FIG. 4, a pair of brackets 50 and 51 are mounted on starter motor 28.These brackets may be mounted by any suitable means but, as will beapparent, bracket 51 must be electrically insulated from the metalhousing of starter motor 28. Bracket 50 is U shaped with the legs 52 and54 of the U" extending away from the surface of motor 28. Similarly,bracket 51 is U shaped with the legs 53 and 55 of the U" extending awayfrom the surface of motor 28. Battery 21 is slipped into brackets 50 and51 and held in place by means of the legs 52, 54, 53 and 55. Thebrackets would normally be made of a spring metal so that battery 21 isactually clipped into the brackets and held firmly in place. Of course,a strap or any other suitable means (not shown) could alsobe added toprevent accidental dislodging of battery 21 or dislodging due tovibration. Legs 55 and 52 in addition to providing spring clips alsoprovide contact points for terminal 27 of battery 21. The ungroundedterminal 27 is shown associated with leg 55 and the grounded terminal isassociated with leg 52. As was mentioned above and is placement andremoval, a bracket assembly mounted on motor 28 as shown in FIG. 4places battery 21 close to the load, thereby reducing the voltage dropin the leads and increasing the efficiency of the system. While aparticular bracket arrangement has been shown in FIG. 4, it will beobvious to those skilled in the art that other similar holding andcontact assemblies could be utilized and that additional batteries couldbe mounted on motor 28 by providing additional brackets.

If instead of using a primary reserve battery 21, a dry charged batteryis used, it may remain in the circuit indefinitely since it will becharged at the same time the battery 20 is charged during the operationof the engine, thus providing at all times extra energy for example,during a severe cold period.

A series arrangement of a primary reserve battery 41, a storage battery20 and a motor 28 are shown in FIG. 2. Under normal operating conditionswhen the starter switch is closed, the power available form the battery20 is sufficient to energize the motor 28 and start the engine. On theoccasion where the battery 20 does not have sufficient power available,the switch 46, which normally remains closed as shown in FIG. 2, isopened, and simultaneously the rod 44 is depressed. This forces thepiston 45 against the incompressable electrolyte contained in batterycompartment 42 which breaks the diaphragm 46 and permits the electrolyteto enter the battery electrode compartment 42 thus energizing thereserve cell 41. The terminal 47 of the reserve battery 41 are connectedto each side of the switch 46' with the polarity indicated. Theenergized reserve battery 41 is now connected in series with the storagebattery 20 adding the supplementary power necessary to properly energizethe motor 28 and start the engine attached thereto.

After the engine has started, the battery 41 may be replaced and theswitch 46 closed again to be ready for the next emergency use.

A series and parallel arrangement of a storage battery 20 with tworeserve batteries 21 and 41, and a motor 28 are shown in FIG. 3. Theoperation of this system is the same as described above for the parallelarrangement of FIG. 1 and the series arrangement of FIG. 2. Theadvantage of the use of both systems together is of course the extrasupplementary power that is made available. Another advantage of thissustem is the fact that if only one reserve battery is used to start theengine, the second battery is held in reserve if an additional emergencystarting is required before it is convenient to replace the reservebatteries.

Many modifications and variations of the illustrated embodiment of thisinvention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly,such variations and modifications as are embraced by the spirit andscope of the appended claims are considered to be within the purview ofthe present invention.

What is claimed is:

I. In combination with an engine primary power supply and starter motor,a supplemental power supply comprising:

a. a normally inactive reserve battery;

b. means to connect said reserve battery in series with said primarypower supply when said reserve battery is activated to supplement thepower of said primary power supply;

c. means to activate said normally inactive reserve battery; and

d. switch means that is closed to short out said reserve battery whensaid reserve battery is inactive, and is opened when said reservebattery is activated, whereby said reserve battery when activatedprovides power to assist in the starting of said engine when saidprimary power supply does not have sufficient energy to start saidengine.

2. The combination as defined in claim 1 wherein battery clips aremounted on said starter motor to detachably mount said reserve batteryon said starter motor.

3. The combination as defined in claim 2 wherein a second reservebattery is connected directly in parallel 6 5. The combination asdefined in claim 4 wherein said means to activate said reserve batteryare located remote from said reserve battery and said means to activatesaid second reserve battery are also located remote from said secondreserve battery.

1. In combination with an engine primary power supply and starter motor,a supplemental power supply comprising: a. a normally inactive reservebattery; b. means to connect said reserve battery in series with saidprimary power supply when said reserve battery is activated tosupplement the power of said primary power supply; c. means to activatesaid normally inactive reserve battery; and d. switch means that isclosed to short out said reserve battery when said reserve battery isinactive, and is opened when said reserve battery is activated, wherebysaid reserve battery when activated provides power to assist in thestarting of said engine when said primary power supply does not havesufficient energy to start said engine.
 2. The combination as defined inclaim 1 wherein battery clips are mounted on said starter motor todetachably mount said reserve battery on said starter motor.
 3. Thecombination as defined in claim 2 wherein a second reserve battery isconnected directly in parallel with said primary power supply duringboth its active and inactive states, and wherein means are provided toactivate said second reserve battery.
 4. The combination as defined inclaim 3 wherein additional battery clips are mounted on said startermotor to detachably mount said second reserve battery on said startermotor.
 5. The combination as defined in claim 4 wherein said means toactivate said reserve battery are located remote from said reservebattery and said means to activate said second reserve battery are alsolocated remote from said second reserve battery.